nuclear power safety

Nuclear power reactors spilt atoms to release energy used to generate electricity. Many of the byproducts formed when atoms split are unstable (radioactive) and release particles or gamma rays in search of stability. These radioactive emissions produce energy. Whether in the core of an operating reactor, in the core of a shutdown reactor, in the spent fuel pool after discharge from a reactor core, or in dry storage after offloading from a spent fuel pool, the energy released from nuclear reactor fuel must be removed before it damages the fuel from overheating. This commentary describes the energy levels associated with nuclear fuel in various locations at various times to illustrate the factors that affect the associated hazard levels. Read more >

As described in Fission Stories #139 and illustrated in Fission Stories #181, a temporary crane removing a component weighing 525 tons on March 31, 2013, in the turbine building of the Unit 1 reactor at Arkansas Nuclear One near Russellville, AR collapsed. The dropped load struck the turbine building floor with considerable force, then rolled and fell through an opening to cause further damage on a lower floor. One worker was killed and eight others injured by the accident. Read more >

The Clinton Power Station is located 23 miles southeast of Bloomington, Illinois and has one General Electric boiling water reactor with a Mark III containment that began operating in 1987.

In December 2017, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) dispatched a Special Inspection Team to the plant to investigate a transformer failure that prompted the operators to manually scram the reactor. That event nearly duplicated a transformer failure/manual scram event that happened at Clinton in December 2013.

The ink had scarcely dried on the NRC’s special inspection report when Clinton experienced yet another electrical power problem. Some progress has been made—this time it did not involve a transformer failure causing the reactor to be shut down. This time, the reactor was already shut down when the power problem began. This time, the failures involved several workers over several days failing to follow several procedures to disable an emergency power supply. This time as in the past, the NRC dispatched a special inspection team to figure out what when wrong. Read more >

In August 2018, Georgia Power announced raised its estimate of the construction costs for its 45.7% share of the two new reactors being constructed at the Vogtle nuclear plant by $1.1 billion from $7.3 billion to $8.4 billion. Assuming the company lacked warehouses stuffed with money, the cost over-run raised an important question: has the hemorrhaging budget for constructing Vogtle Units 3 and 4 taken funding or distracted management attention away from the company’s operating reactors—Vogtle Units 1 and 2 and Hatch Units 1 and 2—and undermined their nuclear safety performance? Read more >

The Crystal River 3 pressurized water reactor in Florida was shut down in September 2009 for refueling. During the refueling outage, the original steam generators were scheduled to be replaced. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was reviewing the owner’s application to extend the reactor operating license for another 20 years. The replacement steam generators would enable the reactor to operate through the end of its current operating license period as well as to the end of a renewed license.

But those plans changed drastically when the process of cutting an opening in the concrete containment wall for the steam generator replacement inflicted extensive damage to the concrete. When the cost of fixing the broken containment rose too high, the owner opted to permanently shut down the facility before its original operating license expired. Read more >